1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a maintenance station of an ink-jet printer, and, more particularly, to a gear train for a maintenance station of an ink-jet printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
The ink-ejecting nozzles of an ink-jet printer sometimes get clogged with coagulated ink and/or contaminations. In order to improve print quality, it is known for an ink-jet printer to be provided with a maintenance station that performs four basic independent functions. First, the maintenance station performs capping of the printheads in order to insure that the printheads do not dry out during idle/power-off. Second, the maintenance station performs wiping of the nozzle plate in order to clear the nozzle plate of debris. Third, the maintenance station performs spitting of ink through the nozzles in order to clear the nozzles of wiping debris. Fourth, the maintenance station performs pumping in order to remove from the ink any micro-bubbles which may develop after printhead installation.
In order to perform these functions, most ink-jet maintenance stations include a power transmission system having a gear train and at least two, and sometimes three, motors. A problem is that each additional motor increases the cost and space requirements of the maintenance station.
What is needed in the art is maintenance station that uses only one motor to perform the four functions of capping, wiping, spitting and pumping.
The present invention provides a gear train which utilizes several key components in order to independently perform the four basic functions of a maintenance station, i.e., capping, wiping, spitting and pumping, while using only one motor.
The invention comprises, in one form thereof, a maintenance station of an ink-jet printer. A maintenance carrier has a plurality of positions, including a pumping position. A respective maintenance function is enabled in each of the positions. A pump pumps ink when the maintenance carrier is in the pumping position. A gear train both translates the maintenance carrier between the plurality of positions and actuates the pump. A single motor drives the gear train to thereby translate the maintenance carrier and actuate the pump.
An advantage of the present invention is that only one motor is required to perform all four maintenance functions, i.e., capping, wiping, spitting, and pumping.